Matt Fowler

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IGN
For 96 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 75% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 20% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Matt Fowler's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 90 Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself
Lowest review score: 20 Cosmic Sin
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 96
  2. Mixed: 50 out of 96
  3. Negative: 2 out of 96
96 movie reviews
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    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    The Woman in the Window
    The Woman in the Window has both flash and fizzle. Amy Adams is great in the lead role, presenting us with a shattered recluse who wages war on lucidity daily, but the rest of the cast, while noteworthy, are sort of relegated to being plot pawns. Still, if you're looking for a higher class of claustrophobic Noir, and don't care too much about the resolution, there's a playfulness on display here that might scratch an airport novel itch.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    War Machine
    War Machine has just enough juice to prevent it from being a Snore Machine.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    The Boss Baby: Family Business
    The Boss Baby: Family Business delivers middle-road mirth, full of action and quasi-clever jokes, and featuring the fun voice additions of James Marsden, Jeff Goldblum, and Amy Sedaris.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Willy's Wonderland
    Willy's Wonderland is a no-frills splatterfest that, while straining to fill its runtime, finds mid-level chills and thrills thanks to Nic Cage bashing the hell out of weaponized pizza parlor characters. It's a shoestring slasher that gets the job done while also not fully rounding a few of the corners it teases.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    A House of Dynamite
    A House of Dynamite has the acting and directing goods, but its weak resolve arrives late in the game.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Wrong Turn
    Wrong Turn delivers a handful of timely twists and coats the franchise with a new, and vastly more interesting, sheen. It stumbles at times to balance all the themes it's trying to handle with regards to societal ills, individual value, and self-determinism but the end result is still a warped ride that could set up more thrills to come.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
    Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank curiously exists as a Mel Brooks movie remake, though that's also its most redeeming feature.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Zeros and Ones
    Zeros and Ones uses the spy genre as a thin mask for a fever dream that evokes nightmarish uncertainty.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Nightbooks
    Krysten Ritter, along with Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett, provide enough pizazz to keep Nightbooks afloat, creating an engaging supernatural hostage scenario.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Voyagers
    While sci-fi is generally rife with allegories, a steadier hand was needed here in Voyagers. The messaging, though noble and necessary, feels obvious to the point that it takes you out of the film. The cast is talented and the premise is promising, but the story plays out in a predictable fashion, which also works, in a way, to undercut the meaning.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    PAW Patrol: The Movie
    Paw Patrol: The Movie is a precious and peppy offering for the pre-preteen set that utilizes gentle character drama and buzzy action to stand out as a big-screen adventure. It won't be any parent's first choice, from an animation standpoint, but the standards of storytelling hold firm, making for an overall calm and comforting watch.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    The Midnight Sky
    George Clooney's The Midnight Sky is a gorgeous, glossy doomsday odyssey that feels like too big a winter coat on a small, fragile frame.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Home Sweet Home Alone
    Despite the inherent ugliness of watching a rich kid diabolically dig into a mom and dad who are just trying to save their home for the sake of their own children, Home Sweet Home Alone has some decent wit and heart to it. Archie Yates is good as the new precocious protector of his lair, but it's Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper who anchor the film and give it something resembling a soul.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Night Teeth
    Night Teeth's winning lead trio and its glossy, electronic buzz save this Collateral clone from sinking into full nonsense. The film's usually interesting, though it never truly strikes with malice or meaning the way it wants to
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Black Crab
    Black Crab has all the ingredients to grab you and take you on a thrill ride -- and at times it achieves this -- but it suffers partial collapse by the end because of its need to land a little loftier than necessary.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Cheaper by the Dozen
    Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union are great pillars here, though the film itself isn't consistent enough with its tone, snapping back and forth between sweet sentiment and cheap gags.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    The Croods: A New Age
    The Croods: A New Age is a mightily medium follow-up to the 2013 original. The voice cast is great and the jokes are the perfect type of clever, where both kids and adults can get a good laugh. The story and emotional stakes are a touch thinner this time but that's to be expected, for the most part, from this type of animated sequel.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Tom & Jerry
    Tom and Jerry hit the big screen for a hybrid live-action romp that too often feels like it's not even their movie.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Wrath of Man
    Wrath of Man has plenty of anger and action, and it's at its intriguing best when the entire story gets sorted out and all the players are on the board, but it stumbles at being a time-release mystery.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Bruised
    Bruised is a good outing for Halle Berry as a director, though a better reminder of her as a star. Aside from that, however, the story progression is light on impact.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Matt Fowler
    Escape the Undertaker
    Escape the Undertaker is a benign but effective use of Netflix's interactive abilities. Pairing the most macabre WWE Superstar with the company's most positive players makes for a fun showdown, one that you might wish had made it to official WWE TV -- not in this form, of course, but as a noble "turn to the dark side" storyline.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 58 Matt Fowler
    Point Blank
    Point Blank's production bones are solid and the action itself is clear and capable, but the story is woefully past its expiration date and the attempt to tether it back to the types of "action movies we grew up with" falls flat.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 56 Matt Fowler
    6 Underground
    Underground is cartoonishly raucous explosion porn from mayhem maestro Michael Bay that feels like a film that was made over a decade ago and was just somehow recently unearthed by Netflix. It's a testament to star Ryan Reynolds and his seemingly effortless charisma because without him the movie would have been a snow-blind mess.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    Firestarter
    Despite solid performances from Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Firestarter feels stifled in story and presentation.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    Metal Lords
    Metal Lords is earnest with metal but sloppy with character and story. It delivers a rousing finale but the journey there is uninspired and half-formed.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    The Main Event
    The story's lifted a bit by some of the solid comedic actors, and the WWE Superstars who make a run-in, but when the story isn't sloppy, it's paint-by-numbers.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    Hubie Halloween
    Hubie Halloween is aggressively stupid, sure, but it's also occasionally endearing (with a guilty chuckle or two).
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    Cry Macho
    Cry Macho has spare moments of charm and tranquility, but mostly it's a dry and unfinished story that fails to hit even the most basic of Story 101 beats.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    Copshop
    Copshop is meaningfully and enjoyably derivative as a patchwork homage to '70s shoot-em-up cinema (even Spaghetti Westerns), but it never quite reaches its potential.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Matt Fowler
    The Astronaut
    The Astronaut has a game lead in Kate Mara and the decent stagings of a monster mystery, but it winds up being a humdrum offering in a genre usually teeming with imagination and innovation.
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